Page 36 of A December to Remember
Slowly she brought herself back to the present. Her thoughts regathered like spun sugar strands in a candy floss machine and she recalled her conversation with Evette in the early hours of this morning.
She had always liked her sister-in-law, the yin to Simone’s yang; they complemented each other. Some people were better together than apart, and to her mind Simone and Evette were the former.
Still, she was surprised to get a panicked phone call from her in the middle of the night. She was even more surprised when Evette stayed on the phone and confided in her about their problems. She had wondered if she ought to try to close down the conversation, if it was somehow disrespectful to her sister to be listening to problems that Simone herself would never have divulged, especially not to Star. But the words torrented out of Evette like she’d spent too long trying to plug the dam and the force of it had finally become too great. Perhaps she needed, Starreasoned, to speak to someone who knew and loved and understood Simone, like she did.
It would be easy to feel annoyed at Simone’s closed-book approach to life; it felt to Star like wanton self-destructiveness to internalize feelings that bred toxicity rather than air them and remove their power. Being aloof didn’t do her any favors, especially when people assumed that her attitude was born out of conceit rather than caution.
It was strange. She had always viewed her sisters through a lens of capability and infallibility. But now she was beginning to realize that neither of them had all the answers and that their shit was far from being together, and that frightened her; surely somebody had to be in control? Because the alternative was thatnobodyknew what the hell they were doing and where did that leaveher?
She stood slowly and began to dress, looking out over the garden and the woods beyond as she did so. A low mist hung over the land like yards of silver tulle. Perhaps it was a good thing that the scales had fallen from her eyes, because now she would have to woman up and become her own fallback, and maybe in the process become someone her sisters could lean on too.
15
Vanessa was—as Simonehad hoped—surprised when they handed over the tote bag containing the Monopoly houses later that morning. She dutifully verified each house against Augustus’s list and passed Simone a small, tarnished key on a piece of brown string in return.
“According to his notes, everything you will need to re-create the winter solstice celebrations of years gone by is waiting for you inside the strongbox.”
“And where is the strongbox?” asked Maggie.
Simone was pleased to see her sister looked as green as she felt. Star, however, was annoyingly chirpy.
“I don’t know. You didn’t come across it during your house hunting?”
“We came across plenty of things. What does it look like?” asked Simone.
Vanessa shook her head and shrugged. “I can’t help you, I’m afraid; I’ve never seen it. All I can tell you is what your father wrote in his instructions: that it was to be found somewhere on the property.”
“We’ll find it,” said Star brightly as they got up to leave.
“I’m afraid you may be beset with visitors today. Just thought I’d warn you.”
“Why?” asked Simone.
Vanessa pursed her lips. “The fracas outside North Novelties last night didn’t go unnoticed. Maggie can tell you that the speed of gossip in this place is faster than the broadband.”
Simone tsked. The mere memory of Stu irritated her, and she gave her sister an accusatory side-eye. Vanessa continued, “And yours and Maggie’s three a.m. rendition of ‘All I Want for Christmas’ along the high street wasn’t missed either.”
“Ha!” Star burst out, looking smugly at Simone. “Now we’re even.”
Simone scowled at herself; she’d forgotten about the singing.
“Gerry Myers said it sounded like the screams of foxes mating,” Vanessa added.
Maggie, still green, laughed weakly. “I’m rather offended, I thought we were quite good.”
“I nailed those high notes,” Simone added.
“You did! If Simon Cowell doesn’t come in today and beg to represent you, there’s no justice in the world,” Star agreed.
“I need togo back to the grocer’s,” said Maggie as they wandered out onto the high street. “I’ll come over in a bit.”
“No hurry,” Star replied brightly. “We can make a start, can’t we, Simone?”
“I won’t be long,” Maggie assured them. “I just have to make sure Joe’s okay.”
“Sure.” Star winked. “Make sure he’sokay!”
Maggie raised her arms. “I don’t even know what that means,” she said, turning and walking toward the grocer’s.
